Rampage Quotes and Then Some!

Not to overemphasize tonight’s game with Grand Rapids, but this was a big win for San Antonio.

Despite the horrid homestand (0-4-0-1) coming into the contest, the Rampage are still in thick of the AHL’s Western Conference playoff race, moving up to the 8th and final post-season spot with the victory.

Coming away with a 4-2 win over the Griffins, a team struggling to make up ground late in the season and playing with that sense of desperation, was huge, as Bill Thomas, the Rampage leading goal scorer mentioned after the game.

“It was really big for us. Big is an understatement. It was huge. We have to go to Abbotsford, that’s a team that wants to make the playoffs like we do. That’s a team we have to pass them. This is an opportunity to move pass them and start looking to moving up in the standings to where we were two or three weeks ago.”

Greg Rallo, who scored what proved to be the game-winning goal, said the team played a solid game for the win.

“We never let the mistakes compound tonight. We had a goal in mind and we stuck to it tonight. We had confidence going into this game and we knew how big it was and everybody played their role tonight.”

The win also allowed head coach Chuck Weber a philosophical moment when he remarked on the similarity of Tuesday’s loss and Thursday’s win. “It’s the old coaching cliche, ‘Forget your mistakes but don’t forget what they taught you.”

When Rallo scored with 6:19 left in the second period, that gave the Rampage a 3-1 lead.

Cue the mistake.

Thomas missed a close in shot, just not able to get his body situated to get leverage on a shot with the puck in the crease. Eleven seconds later, the biscuit is in the Rampage’s basket at the other end, compliments of the newest Rampage nemesis, Chris Minard…3-2.

Cue the “don’t forget what they taught you” part of the Weber adage.

“It went 3-2, ok, we’ve been here. We learned from it,” said Weber. “Tommy making it 4-2, ok, we’ve been here. How do we get ourselves through it. I thought we did give up the high-end scoring chances but we didn’t get as careless as we have in the past that enabled us to go on and play winning hockey.”

Up next is Abbotsford, a team the Rampage doused in November by a combined 8-1 score in British Columbia, a pair of wins that propelled the team back into playoff contention. Dov Grumet-Morris, just back in the States from Finland, went around the world to get to Western Canada, but was exceptional in those two games when the team really needed a lift from their goaltender.

With 11 games remaining, these two games are simply immense when it comes to determining whether this Rampage team will overcome the odds of the franchise’s history and nab a playoff spot for only the third time in 10 years.

Here’s an important stat we need to be aware of heading down the stretch.

Non-shootout wins.

The first tie-breaker for playoff seeding is “games won excluding shootouts.”

In the case of the Rampage, they have four shootout wins.

Of the teams ahead of them in the standings, Abbotsford has the most, six, while Houston, Peoria and Charlotte each have five. Deduct those from their games won totals and the Rampage should be ahead since they have more wins in regulation or overtime.

Rochester, who now trails SA in points but has a game-in-hand which they’ll make up at home Friday night against the worst team in the league, Binghampton (ironically last year’s Calder Cup champs), also has five.

Only Lake Erie is in the same boat with the Rampage with four shootout wins, and they are now behind San Antonio with two extra games played. The Monsters better hope for a tie breaker between another club than the Rampage.

Around the AHL…

Big loss for the Lake Erie Monsters tonight, dropping a 3-2 decision at home to the Chicago Wolves. The Rampage have two games in hand on LE and the Monsters are down to nine games left this season.

The Rampage still have a game in hand on Peoria and Abbotsford, with their next two games this weekend against the Heat, and the Rivermen lying in wait next weekend.

The Wolves still lead the Charlotte Checkers in the Midwest Division. That race may impact the Rampage. San Antonio could finish the season with more points than the Midwest winner, but get a lower seed because a division winner automatically is seeded higher and is guaranteed a playoff spot.

Not to imply next Wednesday’s game with lowly Hamilton is a sure bet, the schedule favors the Rampage should they clear Western Canada with a couple of big wins this weekend.

FYI, the Rampage are not the only AHL teams that struggle with holding a three-goal lead. Wednesday night, the Albany Devils built up a 5-1 lead at home against the Worcester Sharks, with both teams battling it out for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

The Sharks roared back with four unanswered goals to tie, 5-5, only to have the Devils snag the win with a goal with 5:36 left IN REGULATION.

That kept the Sharks from gaining a standing point, moving the Devils into a tie with Worcester for 9th place with 67 points, just a point shy of 8th place Syracuse.

By the way, the Portland Pirates, who played as the Rampage here last season, are in 12th place, but only three points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference race.

Weird stat of the night — Rampage center Jon Matsumoto has fewer goals than the player he was traded for, A.J. Jenks, over the last two months. Jenks, who did not score in 25 games with the Rampage, has four goals with Charlotte, while Matsumoto, who scored four goals in his first four games with San Antonio, has only two goals in his last 20!